Probing morphological changes in polymersomes with magnetic birefringence.

Magnetic birefringence was used for in situ monitoring of the morphological changes in diamagnetic polymersomes during shape-transformation by dialysis. The birefringence was found to be very sensitive to the polymersome morphology, as determined by electron microscopy. The deflation of polymersomes into disks was observed, followed by a bending and partial inflation into stomatocytes.